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A peek into the delusional, dangerous psyche of stalkers

I was barely 16 when I was first stalked. I didn’t notice him at first. Who thinks about ‘stalking’ when a young man walks in the same direction as you? Then, I began noticing him all the time, everywhere. He was outside my junior college when classes got over, outside the YWCA when I finished playing badminton, outside the drama club when rehearsals got over, outside the gate when I happened to look out of the window.

One day, he approached me; apparently he ‘loved’ me. I told my parents. I was told to ‘pay no attention’, and go straight to college and return home. My badminton sessions stopped. Drama rehearsals were a no-no. I felt punished. Worse was yet to come. When he approached me again, I refused to his proposal, point blank. Apparently, I had ‘rejected’ him after ‘leading him on’. How? I don’t know. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that he ‘loved’ me and I had ‘rejected’ him. He threatened to assault me so ‘no one else would have me’.
If it hadn’t been for my eldest brother who accosted the man (and I don’t know what was said), I wouldn’t be here to tell this story. I would have been just another statistic in a list of raped and/or murdered women.”

This is a narrative by an Indian woman who does not wish to reveal her identity.

So what makes stalkers tick? Psychologists have for long been delving into their vast repository of cases to study the mind of a stalker.

Several incidents of killing of women in public in Chennai have shaken the city. Swathi’s murder by P Ramkumar in 2016 and the recent killing of 20-yearold Ashwini by Alagesan have been the most shocking yet. “These people, suffering from mental illness, see a purpose in stalking,” said Dr N Rangarajan, consultant psychiatrist at Chennai-based Psymed Hospitals. “We have identified several kinds of stalkers – one of them being those with delusions of Clerambault syndrom stalk celebrities, convin are in love with them.

kind responds to medi ment,” said Dr Rangar What has proved mo ing is the public displa tal retaliation. Bare months after Swathi’s Karuna, a 21-year-old was repeatedly stabbe rari, New Delhi, allege acquaintance who h stalking her for a whil youth have little tolera jection,” said Chenna commissioner A K Visw “If they desire, it should irrespective of what victim) desires. They do of making themselve ble,” he said.

Perhaps the most ‘stalker’ is the one w tracted to a woman a compelled to reach ou “This kind of stalking fied by movies. Such sta insecure an to express th tion. They h ther the skill ability to woo a woman, Rangarajan. This stalk es from a distance and woman.

The third kind and the most dangerous a who take affront to th not responding to the think the woman is lead on and when she does n rocate, they think they her to live with them vince her of their love harm them when they “The ones that reso lence suffer multiple pe issues. Just like ragging lying, stalking has to very seriously,” said Bhatia, professor and h the department of psych University College of cal Sciences and GTB H tal (Delhi), who also co thored a research pape stalking a few years ag